Fullmetal Hero
by CraftyNarma
Summary: Robin and Batgirl save a strange boy from getting mugged in an alleyway while Bruce has to stay home with a cold. When Batman is back on his feet, he, Robin, and Batgirl join forces with the Fullmetal Alchemist to stop the Joker.


Fullmetal Hero

AN - This is more or less a rewrite of a previous story I was writing called Fullmetal Justice which was basically the same thing but failing epicly and falling apart and all that. This could be more batman than anything, I like Batman. Batman is, like... Batman.

More on this specific story... Don't think about and it makes sense, okay? That's part of a crossover, not everything fits, so it's just best to leave out the confusing parts. MOFFAT!1!2!

Chapter 1

Crime in the city of Gotham had gone up. Some people say that crime in the city came in waves and this was a just one of them. But Alfred, the butler of Bruce Wayne, said that the health of Batman came in waves, not the crime. Though the two where linked strongly together. So, according to Alfred, since Batman had a head cold, the crime went up.  
Batman, defender of the night, couldn't stand to be in bed sick and let the criminals run free to do their dirtiest work. He sent his young side kick, Robin, out with the crime fighting Batgirl, to fight the crime wave while Alfred forced him to rest in bed until he got better. Robin, Batgirl, and Alfred. The only three people that Batman trusted. Not the only three people he could trust, or placed his trust in, but the only three he really trusted.  
During that night, as the two young crime fighters patrolled the city, another young and gifted youth fought for his own life. His name was Edward Elric, known in his world as the Fullmetal Alchemist. But Gotham and the surrounding reality was not Ed's world. As a matter of fact, the two couldn't really be more different than each other.  
Ed's world was substantially more colorful than Gotham. Though it wasn't any less covered in crime and deception. The boy had worked for a corrupted government since he was twelve, the only reason he had gotten in under age was so that the President could later use him as a sacrifice and then dispose of him. Since the boy was currently fighting for his life, it is assumed that the attempt at the boy's life was, at the moment, unsuccessful.  
Unfortunately for Edward, the only two people who could help him were on the other side of the city. Luckily for him, Robin and Batgirl could make it through the city relatively fast and where making their way toward him now.  
"Come on, kid," The mugger smirked. "You really plan of shooting me with my own gun? You don't have the guts."  
Ed did indeed have the muggers gun pointed at the man's face. He forehead was bleeding where the man had clubbed him with the handle of said weapon and he was shaking with slight shock. Ed didn't respond, he just gulped and took a step away from the man, who saw the boy's hesitation and lunged at him. Ed yelped, if he wasn't so damn cold and hungry from living on the streets for a week, the mugger wouldn't have been a problem. But he had been living on the streets and the man was a very big problem.  
"Why don't you just give me your money and get this over with, kid?" The mugger wrestled the gun out of Ed's hand and kneed him in the stomach.  
Curled on the ground and coughing, Ed whimpered, "I don't have any money, just leave me alone."  
"Kid, either you give me all your money or I shoot your face." The mugger knelt next to Ed and put the gun to the boy's temple. Ed shivered. He cursed himself for letting his guard down and he cursed himself for not being strong enough to defend himself against a petty mugger. But he had no more time to curse himself any further for his shortcomings because two masked heroes jumped down into the alley.  
"Hey, pick on someone you're own size!" Robin shouted. He pulled out a birdarang and ready to throw it.  
"Hum, like you?" The mugger, who was very frightened, but determined not to show it, pointed the gun at Robin and fired.  
"Uh, oh!" Robin shouted and leapt out of the way. "Do you want to go to jail? Oh right, you already are!" With that he signaled to Batgirl, who spun through the air and kicked the man in the face. Clutching his nose, the man backed off a few steps. He reached down and grabbed Edward.  
"Back off, or I'll kill him!" He held Ed in a hostage hold and put the gun once again to the boy's temple. Ed struggled as hard as he could, but his attempts were feeble and weak. He even tried to bit the man, but that was too difficult.  
"Lemme go!" Ed shouted. He felt the man's grip loosen and he slipped away, just in time to get out of the man's way as he fell unconscious to the ground. Robin stood behind the man with a pipe in one hand. Robin stuck his tongue out while Batgirl cuffed the man to a fire escape. As the man started to come too she knelt close to his face and smiled.  
"Don't worry, they usually come around mondays to pick up the trash." She pulled away and heard Ed groan in pain. He had been beaten pretty hard by the attempt mugger and had collapsed again to the ground, holding his stomach. Robin was already at his side.  
"Are you okay?" Robin asked. Ed looked up at him and glared. It could only mean, 'What do you think?' Robin helped the boy up, "Standard question." He then grunted under the weight of the banged up youth. "How much can you weigh?!"  
Ed shrugged feebly, "I guess I weigh more than I look I do." Batgirl helped Robin and the two of them brought the boy to the only place they could think of bringing him at the moment. The police station.

Commissioner Gordon had asked the boy many questions, with the help of Robin and Batgirl. They discovered that the boy's name was Edward Elric and he had no parents or any other family to speak of. He had been living on the streets for a week and they couldn't get him tell them where he had been before that. They currently had him sitting in Gordon's waiting room with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate.  
"Why do you think he's on the street, Robin?" Batgirl asked the younger crime fighter.  
"I think he ran away from home," Robin answered absentmindedly. He hadn't really given it much thought. "Most kids who live on the street ran away from home."  
"What do you think he ran away from?" Batgirl pressed. Robin didn't really want to think about it, let alone talk about it. It was late and he wanted to sleep. He just shrugged and then yawned.  
The Commissioner went up to the two crime fighting children, "You two know where I can put the boy for tonight before I look for a more permanent place for him?" He asked.  
Robin and Batgirl shrugged. They looked over at Ed, who was sitting across the room, huddled up with the blanket over his shoulders and the hot chocolate held firmly in his hands. He was wearing all black and combat boots. His hair and eyes matched in a golden color. The messy state of his long hair, pulled back in a braid, was matched by the deadness in his eyes. He looked like the living dead.  
"I'd better just take him home with me, I'll call Babs and tell her," He took out his phone. Batgirl and Robin stiffened slightly. They waited for the phone to stop ringing, like they knew it would. Gordon left a message and then hung up. "It's late, she must bee sleeping."  
"Yes," Batgirl agreed. "Robin, we should get back to patrolling." The two left the police head quarters and unbeknownst to the police men they departed from, went their respectful ways back home. Gordon walked to Ed and knelt next to him. He looked up into the shallow, dead eyes. He resisted the erg to shiver when the boy looked back at him.  
"Edward, can I just call you Ed?" The boy nodded slowly. "You're going to come home with me for tonight. In the morning we'll find a more permanent place for you. Does that sound good to you?"  
"It doesn't matter, does it?" Ed's voice was filled with grief and it was heavy in his throat. "I don't have choice."  
Gordon sighed. "No, I suppose you don't. Come on, we're leaving now." The man took the boy out of the headquarters and to his home.

He gave the boy some food and showed him to the guest room. He checked on his daughter, who was sleeping soundly in her bed. He checked on the boy again. He found him in the bed with his back turned from the door and his body was shaking slightly. Gordon slowly closed the door. He heard the boy whisper something quietly to himself.  
"I'm sorry, Alphonse."

Chapter 2

AN - God, I love Alfred.

The next morning, Alfred let Bruce get out of bed. He declared him a healthy man once more but still served him a bowl of chicken noodle soup for breakfast.  
"What is this, Alfred?" Bruce complained.  
"It is a bowl of soup, Master Bruce." Alfred stated.  
"But I'm not sick anymore!"  
"Better safe than sorry, Master Bruce."  
Dick, Bruce's young ward, sniggered as he sat down at the table to eat. He stopped laughing when Alfred put a bowl of oatmeal in front of him. Bruce smiled to himself and ate his soup. As they ate their breakfast, the door bell rang. Alfred announced that he would get it and he went to open the door.  
"Is Bruce home, Alfred?" It was Commissioner Gordon.  
"Indeed he is, sir, shall I go and get him? Do come inside," Alfred invited Gordon into the big mansion.  
"Yes, please go and get him. I'll only stay a minute, so I'll stay out here." Gordon answered. Alfred nodded and went to go get Bruce.  
"Jim, what brings you here?" Bruce yawned. He was still in his pajamas but he didn't mind. Gordon was an old friend of his.  
"Well, last night, Batgirl and Robin brought in this boy, Edward Elric. He apparently has no family and I don't know where to put him..." Commissioner Gordon trailed off.  
"Jim, If you think that I can..." Bruce started.  
"Come on, Bruce," Gordon interrupted. "It's only for a short while until we can either find a relation of his who is willing to take him or we find him a more permanent home. It won't take long. No one else is willing to take him."  
"Why?"  
"He looks like he's seen the end of the world, Bruce."  
"No, I can't." Bruce took a small step back.  
"Please, for an old friend. He's in the car, I can go and get him. Ask him if he'll stay here. It's either here or in the police station. I don't think that he can handle what we deal with there."  
"Oh fine," Bruce finally collapsed. Gordon nodded and went to his car to get Ed out of the passenger seat. Bruce looked at the boy. He really did look like a zombi. "Hello, Edward." Ed just looked up at him and looked him over, and grunted. Despite his defeated look on the outside. He was definitely still fighting on the inside.  
Ed looked up at the mansion and his eyes widened slightly. "This is a very big house. You could hide an army in here." Bruce almost flinched at the sound of the boy's voice. It sounded forced, like he didn't want to say anything at all but felt it rude not to. The comment still made Bruce and Gordon laugh though.  
"No army," Bruce patted Ed on head. "Just Alfred, Dick, and me." Ed grunted and let himself be lead into the house by the very rich man. If it was even posable, the inside of the house seemed to be even bigger that the out side. Either that or it was just smaller on the outside. Ed allowed himself a small smile at the thought.  
"Alfred, Dick, this is Ed," Bruce introduced Ed to the rest of the manor's inhabitants. Dick, who had given up poking his oatmeal and had begun to eat it and just looked up from his meal and nodded. Alfred, also nodded politely from the kitchen area and began to make the boy breakfast. "He'll be staying with us until Commissioner Gordon can find a more permanent place for him."  
Ed just stood there. He looked over at the kitchen and his stomach growled. Bruce offered him a seat and then sat down himself and resumed eating his soup. All in all, the situation was very tense and awkward. Alfred put a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of Ed who at first just looked at it with shock. After he realized that it was real, and for him, he nodded at Alfred, muttered 'thank you', and dug in very enthusiastically. The three other people stared at the boy's enthusiasm.  
"The Commish did feed you before he brought you here, right?" Dick asked. Ed nodded but didn't say anything, his mouth was too full of food.  
"Come, Master Dick," Alfred pulled Dick away from the table. "You'll be late for school." Ed watched in amusement as Dick, who was wearing his school uniform, was dragged away by the old butler. Bruce took a news paper out and started to read it. The head line read 'Who is the Batman?'. The picture under it was a blurry outline of a man in a cape looking over a city skyline, standing on a building. To Ed, 'the Batman' looked like a crazy lunatic with an over acute sense of justice.  
When Bruce turned over the paper and saw the article, his eyes widened momentarily, when he read the speculation, he let out a sigh. Ed took note of this. That reaction alone interested him. Maybe he should poke further into the matter, or maybe not. Ed didn't really care, he was getting board.  
"If you ask me, anyone who dresses like that is not right in the head." Ed muttered. He had finished his meal and was now leaned back with his feet propped on the table.  
"I think it would be in your best interest if your feet weren't on the table when Alfred get's back." Was all Bruce said. Ed shrugged and took his feet off the table. "You're going to have to come with me to work, Ed. I've got a meeting and Alfred doesn't want you snooping around the house."  
"How do you know that? He never said he didn't," Poor Bruce, little did he know that his comment, while it didn't do much, heightened Ed's desire to explore the huge manor.  
"No, but I've known him long enough to know he doesn't want anyone snooping around." Bruce was much to calm for Ed's liking.  
"You're hiding something," Ed tried to keep his voice from sounding to malicious. Little did he know that his voice sounded dead.  
"And you're not?" Was Bruce's reply. Ed forced his face to stay straight, but the thought of what he was hiding from the man made him burry his head in his arms and grunt. The rest of the wait for Alfred was spent in silence. And when Alfred did come back to pick up his two charges, the drive to Wayne Tech, where the meeting was, was also spent in silence. Alfred thought it best to not push the two into socializing.

Bruce introduced Ed to the secretary at the head office and asked her to keep an eye on him. Now Ed can see a playboy from a mile off, having worked for one since he was twelve, and he could tell that Bruce was pretending to be a playboy, but was not naturally one. Again, this added to Ed's suspicions about the richest man in Gotham. Ed couldn't imagine anyone wanting to be playboy if they weren't already one.  
"What's the meeting about, anyway?" Ed asked as he propped himself comfortably on a couch in the waiting room.  
"It's about finances and advancements in the resent studies that we're going through," The secretary responded, not looking up from her work.  
"What type of 'advancements'?"  
"That is highly classified information."  
"What, you think I'm a spy from some rival company?"  
The woman didn't answer and Ed was forced to spend the rest of the two hour long meeting in silence and boardroom. He had almost fallen asleep when the people started to come out of the meeting room. His first question was to ask Bruce what advancements Wayne Tech had made.  
"It's complicated, you wouldn't understand." Bruce said. Ed noticed one of the men leaving the meeting had a prothesis leg under his arm. He was talking with one of the other meeting member's. She was holding an arm.  
"Believe me, I think I might understand more than you think," Ed pressed Bruce for more information. This caught Bruce off guard. He looked at Ed and raised an eye brow.  
"Well, we're working on a new type of prothesis. The tech we have now doesn't give as much mobility as a normal arm or leg or eye. We're making them lighter, more affordable, and more natural."  
Ed nodded and absentmindedly rubbed his shoulder. "That's helpful for a lot of people."

Chapter 3

AN - Short chapter is short. Poor Ed.

That night, Alfred showed Ed to a huge guest room. Earlier at dinner, Bruce had asked Ed about his parents. All he got from Ed was a tangible silence. Ed's feelings where so strong when he asked about the boy's mother that Bruce himself almost start to cry. He was shocked when Ed bent a fork in his hand when Bruce asked about his father. Ed looked shocked that he had bent it as well and apologized. Dick just thought it was cool.  
As Ed looked at Dick's spare pajamas that he was borrowing, the only things he owned where the cloths in his back and the contents of his pocket. His pocket watch with the words 'don't forget .10' scratched into it and two pictures. One of him and his little brother, and another of him, his little brother, and his mother. He gave all three of those items a look and put them on the bedside table. He changed into the pajamas and tried to open the door. It was locked.  
Ed put his ear to the door and listened. He counted to twenty in his head and when he heard nothing, he clapped his hands together and unlocked the door with alchemy. He opened it slowly and quietly and then snuck down the hallway. He silently crept through the mansion, hiding in the shadows. He came across a room with one of the many grandfather clocks in the room. A picture of Dick and two people, who Ed assumed where his parents, was sitting over the fireplace.  
Ed heard Alfred coming down the hallway and he quickly hid himself behind a sofa. He peeked out and watched Alfred open the grandfather clock. He was holding a tray of biscuits, not something one would put in a grandfather clock. The explanation of the strange action was made apparent when the clock opened up into a small, high powered elevator. Alfred went into the elevator and closed the door. If one of the clocks did that, then maybe all of them did.  
"That is very interesting," Ed muttered to himself. The gears in his head turned on each other and Ed's famous thought process panned out and put the pieces of the puzzle that he had acquired together. Bruce became stiff at the possible discovery of the Batman's secret identity, he didn't want Ed snooping around his house, Alfred had locked Ed's door as if he really didn't want Ed to snoop around, and now this. A secret elevator behind a grandfather clock.  
"Bruce must be the Batman." Ed muttered. "That means he's the greatest detective on the planet." Ed grinned mischievously to himself. "I think he just got out done. We're both hiding a secret, and I found out his secret first." Ed decided to confront him. No one can keep a secret from Edward Elric! And once Edward Elric figured out you're secrect, he'd let you know.  
Ed snuck up to the grandfather clock and opened it. He got in the elevator and went down. When the elevator door opened, he found himself in the Bat Cave. He stepped out of the elevator and found Batgirl and Robin looking at him. Alfred looked at Ed and coughed. Ed crossed his arms and frowned. Batman, who was standing at the computer turned to look at Ed.  
He squinted, "That didn't take you very long."  
"When did you figure out that I would find this?" Was Ed's response.  
"Five minutes ago." Batman pointed at the screen, the search was for Edward Elric and the results where zero.  
Ed smirked, "I win. I started to suspect you this morning. It was confirmed twenty minutes ago when Alfred locked my bed room door." If Batman was surprised, he didn't show it. "You're going to ask me who I am now, aren't you?"  
"Yes."  
"Well, you're not going to get the answer from me." Ed stopped smirking. He didn't make any face. His emotions seemed to just die. "Can you do a search for an Alphonse Elric."  
Batman squinted again and turned back to his computer. The search got just as many results as the previous ones. Ed inhaled deeply and his head fell into shadow.  
"That was worth a shot, I guess." Ed turned to leave. "Thanks for the hospitality, but I can't waste anymore time here." Before he could reach the elevator, Alfred put himself between Ed and Ed's destination.  
"If it's all the same to you, Master Ed, I think we can, indeed, help you."  
Ed shook his head. "No."  
"Edward," Batgirl went to Ed and put a hand on his shoulder.  
"Barbara," Ed said back.  
"Wait, how'd you know?"  
"You looked familiar, and I found you're suit under the floor boards of your bed." Ed shrugged her hand off his shoulder.  
"You went into my room!? Never mind. Ed, we can help you."  
"I think that something's got him. Something that you can't arrest and then lock up in Arkham. Something you have to kill. Can you kill something that was human once?" Ed's eyes grew hard, and his body sagged. Batgirl shook her head. "Then you can't help."  
"Ed, don't do something you'll regret later." Batman rejoined the conversation. Ed glared at him with pure hatred.  
"It's way to late for that." Ed pushed past Alfred and got into the elevator. That's when Robin spoke.  
"Who is Alphonse?"  
Ed collapsed to his knees and all his pent up emotions forced themselves to the surface. He started to weep. "He was all I had left. And now, he's gone."

Chapter 4

Alfred had gotten a blanket and wrapped it around Ed's shoulders. He had also gotten him a cup of warm tea and an extra plate of biscuits. Batgirl and Robin and both sat next Ed while had shook uncontrollably. Robin repeatedly apologizing for upsetting Ed.  
"It's not you're fault." Ed muttered, when he had stopped sobbing. "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. He needed me and I wasn't there for him. He might even need me now, and I'm not there for him. I've only made him suffer. He probably hates me. No, I know he hates me. He must hate me. I'm his big brother, and I've let him down so many times." The Bat Family let the boy rant quietly to himself. when he had stopped, Batman asked Ed some questions.  
"Has he ever left you willingly?" Batman demanded. Ed thought about it for a split second and then shook his head.  
"Has he ever told you that he hated you and really, truly meant it?" Again, Ed shook his head.  
"Would your brother ever lie to you?" Ed shook his head.  
"Are you 100% certain he is gone forever?" Ed shook his head very violently.  
"Then why the hell are you sitting there when you can help me find him?" Ed was shocked and for a moment he didn't respond. Then, he pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the computer. The blanket and the tea still on his person.  
"He was kidnapped from an abandoned theater we were staying at. I was coming back after looking for some way to get money when I heard fighting. Al screamed for me, and I ran like hell to reach him. He wasn't in the theater, and when I went to the back alley behind the theater, a black van drove off. I haven't heard from him since." Batman pulled up a detailed map of Gotham. Ed pointed to a particularly run down section. "That's where we were staying. I haven't been there in a week."  
"We're going there. Ed, you stay here."  
"Absolutely not. He's my little brother. I'm going and you can't stop me."  
"I can and I will. This is dangerous."  
"I know that, that's why I'm coming. You're gonna need all the help you can get." Ed put the tea down and started for the elevator. "Alfred, I'm going to get some stuff. Can you make sure that they don't leave without me?"  
"Absolutely, Master Ed," Alfred nodded.  
"Thanks."  
Ed came back and he was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, black skinny jeans, his black and red combat boots, a black jacket, his ever present white gloves, and a red coat. A symbol of a snake, a cross, a crown, and a pair of wings was printed big and black on the back of the cloak. He had a silver pocket watch chain in one pocket and he held a red mask in his hand.  
"I'm ready. Oh, and since you seem to like secret identities here, call me Fullmetal." Ed put the mask on his face and crossed his arms. He smirked. There was fire in the boy's eyes.

The three crime fighters and the one unknown alchemist entered the abandoned theater. The fight was still very evident since they were most likely the first ones here since Alphonse had been kidnapped. Fullmetal went to a corner of the room and picked up a helmet. He walked back to the Bats, the helmet cradled in his arms.  
"You'll probably find something I missed. I don't know as much about Gotham as you do."  
"Did you get a look at the kidnappers." Batman switched on some sort of built in gadget in his hood and looked over the scene. Batgirl picked up an empty ramen pack. She looked at Fullmetal as if to say 'yours?'  
"I didn't see them, but I can guess as to what they want with him." Fullmetal muttered. Batman reached a hand out to Fullmetal, he wanted to inspect the helmet. Fullmetal cringed back and squeezed the helmet closer to himself. The very childish way of saying, 'mine!'  
"Fullmetal, I need to see that, it could give us some clues as to where your brother is." Fullmetal shook his head.  
"No, it's Al's. He doesn't like anyone but me touching it, and only then if I have to." Fullmetal turned to go out the back door. Standing there reminded him of the van as it drove away. "There was a man laughing in the van. I think he was the one driving."  
"What kind of laugh."  
"The laugh of a psychopath lunatic. He sounded like someone who has tried to kill me before. But it couldn't have been Kimbley, Kimbley's dead. And there would have been explosions." Ed started to talk to himself. He shivered at the memory of the crazy military officer.  
"Kimbley?" Robin asked.  
"He was a... crazy psychopath who killed his own men. Because he could. He remember's every face of every person he's killed. So if he sees you and he recognizes you, that means he failed to kill you and he won't stop hunting you until he does. Either you die or he dies trying to kill you." Ed's face had turned dark again.  
"Has he tried to kill you?" Batgirl looked very conserned.  
"No, yes, I'm not sure what he was trying to do." The memory of the pole in his side made the scars there hurt again. He held his stomach and felt bile rise in his throat. "I think he had orders not to kill me, but to kidnap me. He almost killed me in the process though."  
"From your description, and your comparison of this man to the laugh. I would say that your brother was kidnapped by the Joker." Batman looked really pissed off. Robin and Batgirl both shivered. "I'll do everything I can to save him, you three should go back to the cave."  
Fullmetal started laughing. It was a broken laugh, the laugh of someone who had nothing left to lose. When he stopped he walked right up to the daunting Batman and jabbed a finger at the man's chest. "Like hell I'll go anywhere with out my little brother. Where is the Joker? I'm going with you."  
If Batman was shocked by the boy's actions, he didn't show it. He just looked at Robin and Batgirl. "Fine." The four of them went to the Bat Mobile. Fullmetal sat in the passenger's set and Robin and Batgirl followed on their bikes. Batman contacted Alfred and asked him to check the computer for Joker's hide out.

It was in an abandoned wear house on the other side of Gotham. The outside looked normal. Run down and abandoned, but when the four off them went through the rusted doors, the inside looked like a demented fun house. Huge Jack-in-the-Boxes and funky mirrors lined the walls. The floors where tiled with playing cards and the ceiling seemed to fade off into darkness. The whole thing sent shivers down the three children's spines. Batman was not moved by the strange, musty arrangement.  
"This guy needs some house decor classes." Fullmetal muttered. Robin held back a snicker. The four proceeded with caution. When they reached two huge playing cards, one with a Joker and the other with a Harley Quinn, the lights on the hidden ceiling flickered on. Laughing filled the room.  
"Hello, Batsy!" The Joker was talking on an intercom. "I knew you would find out about the kid. Pick one of the doors. The kid's behind one, and I'm behind the other!" He started cackling like a hyaena. Batman shoved through the door with the Joker. Fullmetal face was hit with a acrid smell and out of reflex he grabbed Batman's cape and pulled him back. Behind the door with the Joker was a vat of some green, boiling liquid.  
"Thanks." Batman was only slightly stunned at his own impatience. Then, anger filled him when he saw what was hanging over the vat. A boy, who looked like Fullmetal, was hanging from a chain. He was gagged and looked very terrified.  
"Al!" Fullmetal fell to his knees.  
"Aw, poor kid," The Joker's voice started up again. "How about this. Go through the other door." Robin opened the other door. The Joker was standing at a desk, a microphone in one hand. Harley Quinn was standing next to him holding a lever. The door lead into the same room as the other one, but instead of opening up above the vat, it opened to a platform next to it. Without hesitation, Fullmetal rushed the Joker.  
"Ah, ah, ah, kid," The Joker smiled even more than he already was. Harley Quinn pushed down on the lever and Al fell a few feet closer to the vat. Fullmetal halted immediately. "Do that and he'll take a bath." Al stared to struggle.  
"Don't," Fullmetal lowered his head. Batman walked into the room with Batgirl and Robin close behind. Joker's smile turned into an evil grin. He reached behind him and pushed a button, the floor underneath the three Bats opened up and dropped them into a cage. Fullmetal rushed to them and tried to help them out, but the floor closed up again.  
"Don't want them interfering with our little party." Joker stated. Fullmetal ticked at the word, 'little'. "I have a request for you, alchemist." Fullmetal turned to him and grimaced. If Batman couldn't find that out, then how the hell did this crazed psychopath know. "Oh, you're little brother didn't tell me about your secret. He's been a bit tied up." The Joker laughed again. "It was another friend of yours. A man named Van Hohenheim." Joker pushed another button behind him and a fun-house mirror fell into the floor, revealing a man in another cage who looked like an older Ed with a beard and glasses.  
"Dad?" Fullmetal looked stunned to see the man.  
"Son, get out of here. Run!" Hohenheim shouted at Fullmetal.  
"Not without Al!" Fullmetal shouted back. He turned back to the Joker. "Let them go." He hissed. His fists clenched and his body trembled.  
"Hum, let me think..." Joker laughed. "No!" He laughed some more and pushed another button, this time the floor under Fullmetal opened up and he fell to the floor level that the vat of acid was on. He rolled so that he wouldn't break anything on impact. His first thought was to get the three Bats out of the cage. Since the Joker knew about his alchemy, he saw no further reason to hide it. Clapping his hands together he transmuted the bars of the cage and then ran to the vat to close up the top.  
The Joker whistled from where he stood on the platform and two hyaenas jumped out of the shadows at Ed, who kicked one with his foot and blocked the other with his right arm. It gnawed on what it thought was flesh, but was met with a strange metallic taste and a hard substance.  
"What's the matter?" Fullmetal snarled. "Can't get a good taste?" The Joker, who had been laughing when the hyaenas attacked him stopped laughing for a second. "Sorry, but you got the wrong arm. How about the right leg!" Fullmetal kicked the beast away from him with his left leg. The hyaena was sent flying into his companion. The cloak and jacket sleeves where both completely destroyed, revealing a metal arm. Fullmetal's right arm was a prosthetic.  
Joker, who was already laughing, laughed harder, "Now I see where you got the name, 'Fullmetal'! Your missing an arm. And a leg?" Batgirl and Robin both looked at Fullmetal's arm and flinched. Fullmetal just glared at the Joker and his Harley Quinn sidekick. Batman had gotten down to matter at hand while Fullmetal, Robin, and Batgirl distracted Joker and his goons. He had freed Al from the chains and gotten Hohenheim out of the cage. Al, after hugging his dad and sobbing slightly, clapped his hands together and changed into a huge suit of armor.  
"Alphonse," Hohenheim patted his younger son on the arm, the highest he could reach on the towering suit of armor. "Make sure your brother doesn't get hurt. I'd help but..."  
"You don't have any energy left."  
"Five hundred years of wandering around can do that to a person." That got Batman's attention. Al ran at the Joker, who was still distracted with the three teens fighting an army of goons and his pair of wild, cackling doggies. He jump kicked the laughing psycho in the back, knocking him to the ground below. He flipped through the air and landed behind his brother. Fullmetal knocked his metal fist against Al's amor and grinned a maniacs smile.  
"Let's kick some ass, little brother." And they did.

Chapter 5

(Maybe the last one for this section of the story)

Gordon and the other police officers came to take the Joker and his gang back to Arkham Asylum. Ed decided to un-hero and go back to the manor, leaving Al and Hohenheim to disguise the involvement of Bruce Wayne's newest charge. Though Al and Hohenheim did not deny relation to the hyperactive, (you know Ed had ADHD, I can recognize it from a distance, I have it to) young genius of a teenager. Hohenheim, being the horrible people person, and father, that he was, claimed to have lost the rights to take care of his sons for being an irresponsible parent. Batman, Robin, and Batgirl quickly found an excuse to leave so that when Gordon took Al to the manor, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson would be there.  
Gordon took Al to the manor in his car and rang the door bell. Alfred, who was prepared for the Commissioner's arrival, counted to twenty and opened the door, faking a half asleep look. Al, who was standing next to Jim Gordon, looked up at the mansion.  
"Good afternoon, Sir, how may I help you?"  
"Is Ed awake?" Gordon asked, his hand resting gently on the young boy's shoulder. "I need to talk to him. And also Bruce."  
"I shall go and get them, please do come in." Alfred did indeed go and retrieve Ed and Bruce, and Dick followed close behind. Ed let out a huge yawn, then he heard the cry of his last family.  
"Brother!" Al ran to him and gave him a hug. Ed, slightly shocked, not really, looked at Al and hugged him back. Both brothers shed a few manly tears in the reunion. Dick, who was genuinely tired, sat on a couch in the main living room and leaned against Bruce, who was now mostly awake. (Yeah right, Bruce is nocturnal, he's wide awake right now. Also, I would imaging that there are more than one living rooms in the Wayne Manor. It is frigging huge!)  
"Bruce, I'm sorry, but the boys don't have any legal guardian or family left other than each other and a very irresponsible father, apparently." Ed snorted and both he and his brother sat across from Bruce and Dick. Gordon sat in an arm chair. A very expensive armchair. "I don't know what we're going to do with them, what with the younger one having been kidnapped by the Joker of all people." Bruce, Dick, Alfred, and Ed pretended to look shocked and worried. Gordon looked at the two orphaned brothers, "We are doing our best to find you a loving home, boys, but with this latest... happenings, I'm afraid it will be very hard to find someone willing to take you two in."  
Bruce looked at the two boys, of course Bruce had to act intimidated by the 'latest... happenings', but also took pity on the two boys. If he took in Dick after the little acrobats parents where murdered, he wouldn't arouse any attention to adopting two more boys out of the 'love in his heart'. Well, no more than a normal billionaire would. "You know, in the short time that Edward's been here, he's grown on me. Alfred, do you think we can take in two more, or is Dick to much of a hand full?"  
"Hey!" Dick snapped awake momentarily and then nodded of onto his guardian's shoulder again. Alfred, who had noticed that Ed was also nodding of onto his little brother, had brought a blanket and draped it around Ed.  
"What is two more, you and Master Dick are barley a challenge." Alfred said in a way that only Alfred could. Gordon looked relieved that he had found a home for the two boys in such a short time.  
"Thank you!" Al looked very joyed that he didn't have to worry about living in an abandoned theater anymore, but he could think of any way he could repay the generosity. "How can we..."  
"Think of it as a gift," Bruce knew what the boy was going to say before the boy said it. He was Batman after all.


End file.
